Isabel Allende Summary

Isabel Allende (1942 -) Chilean novelist, essayist, journalist, short story writer, memoirist, playwright, and juvenile fiction writer. Isabel Allende: Introduction Isabel Allende: Principal Works Isa... Read more

The author of several novels and a short fiction collection, as well as plays and stories for children, Isabel Allende (born 1942) has received international acclaim for her writing.Allende earned the... Read more

Isabel Allende is the best-known and most widely read woman writer from Latin America. When the English translation of her widely acclaimed first novel, La casa de los espíritus (1982), appear... Read more

Below, Hart discusses Allende's shift to a Mexican-American protagonist in El plan infinito and praises her characterization, imaginative prose, and humor. All the exuberant strengths and endea... Read more

In the following review of The Infinite Plan, Arana-Ward argues that Allende's novel suffers from clichés, "numbing descriptions," and slight characterizations. A promise i... Read more

Rubin is an American critic. In the following review of The Infinite Plan, he argues that the novel "is ambitious in scope, but merely competent in execution." The Infinite Plan is Isabe... Read more

In the essay below, Hart examines what she terms "feminocentric magic realism" in The Stories of Eva Luna, focusing on Allende's handling of such issues as prostitution and rape. ... Read more

In the following essay, Diamond-Nigh examines Allende's treatment of Latin-American literary history in Eva Luna. In the beginning was the Word. And in the end. The opening lines of Isabel Alle... Read more

De Ferrari is a Peruvian-born art curator and novelist. In the following review of Paula, she discusses Allende's portrayal of her life and family. Isabel Allende's new book, Paula, is m... Read more

In the following review of Paula, Ruta faults Allende's writing as overly sentimental and criticizes Allende for failing to more fully develop Paula's character. "All sorrows can ... Read more

In the following review of Paula, Butt contends that Allende's "defenceless optimism" and "effusive generosity" are effective in her memoirs but not necessarily in h... Read more

In the review below, DuBow states that while Paula is not really about Allende's daughter, the work nevertheless expresses true grief over her death. Isabel Allende's autobiographical Pa... Read more

In the following essay, which originally appeared as a chapter of a senior honors thesis presented at Harvard College on March 1, 1991, García-Johnson examines Allende's representation o... Read more

In the following review, Bader calls Allende a "master storyteller" but questions her treatment of women and feminist issues in The Stories of Eva Luna. Like virtually every American, I ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Rehbein maintains that Allende manipulates language and the narrator's voice in Eva Luna to represent a changing reality in the narrative. Cuando escribi Eva Luna, po... Read more

In the following review, McMurray comments on Allende's literary accomplishment with Paula. Isabel Allende's most recent book is a memoir dedicated to her daughter Paula, who died in 199... Read more

In the following review, Mujica lauds both the literary and gastronomical dimensions of Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses. Ever since Laura Esquivel published her spectacularly successful novel, Like ... Read more

In the following review, Novella evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Daughter of Fortune. Chilean author Isabel Allende, having followed the culinary example of her Mexican colleague Laura Esqui... Read more

In the following review, Donaldson lauds Allende's rich characters and the cultural diversity of the setting in Daughter of Fortune. Isabel Allende has too often been lazily claimed as a magic ... Read more

In the following review, Stavans faults Portrait in Sepia for relying too heavily on the plots of Allende's previous novels, noting that the novel caters to the entertainment market rather than... Read more

In the following review, Graham finds the plot of Portrait in Sepia formulaic and predictable, but appreciates its perspectives on the human struggle to live and love. On the first page of Isabel Alle... Read more

In the following review, Schwirtz observes several of Allende's familiar recurring themes in Paula. In Chilean author Isabel Allende's life, two tragic twists of fate marked sharply dive... Read more

In the following review, Behar examines Paula with respect to Allende's past and motivation for writing the work. “Listen, Paula, I am going to tell you a story, so that when you wake up... Read more

In the following essay, Cohn compares the literary techniques of Ralph Ellison in Invisible Man and Allende in La casa de los espíritus, examining their respective treatment of the marginalizat... Read more

In the following essay, Levine offers a stylistic and thematic analysis of The Stories of Eva Luna. While each of Isabel Allende's books seems to emerge almost organically from the one that imm... Read more

In the following interview, originally published in 1991, Allende considers the relationship between her novel Eva Luna and her story volume The Stories of Eva Luna. Isabel Allende's novel The ... Read more

In the following essay, Hart contends that Allende employs the technique of magic realism in The Stories of Eva Luna in order to present a feminist perspective on issues such as prostitution, domestic... Read more

In the following essay, Danow discusses the elements of a “carnival” attitude in the short stories of Allende, Isaac Babel, Jorge Luis Borges, and Juan Rulfo and explores the theme of re... Read more

In the following essay, Lindsay provides a socio-psychoanalytic reading of “Niña perversa” in order to examine Allende's use of romantic conventions in her fiction. In an e... Read more